Boarded Up

I had a lot of feelings last week about Downtown being boarded up. Once one owner did it, it seemed everyone did except for us for fear of the vandalism that destroyed Downtown Raleigh. I tried to write several things to hash it out. Writing is how I process. Many thanks to my friends HD, AS, MG, EL, and GG that offered input.

My first hot take:

It burns my heart to say this, but it strikes me as hypocritical that the companies that are sending out #blacklivesmatter spam to their listservs and grams are the same ones that are boarding up their businesses. Poverty in Durham didn't start with George Floyd. If we cared more about solving endemic poverty, especially child poverty in Durham, we would not have built all those shitty condos. Perhaps before an axe-throwing bar, we would have invested more in our schools, or in bi-lingual education or all-access health care. The forces of capitalism run deep, and corrupt even the most diligent progressives. As fucked up as it is, I hope this time can change some people to begin to listen, to learn that silence is a deadly weapon, and that community investment shouldn't be about dollars, it should be about humans.

Then I read this (sent by GG):

https://forge.medium.com/performative-allyship-is-deadly-c900645d9f1f


Next:

I think it's kind of hypocritical to say on one hand that you stand as one with black people and on the other believe that they are potentially dangerous vandals. It makes sense to board up from an economic standpoint, but there is a cognitive dissonance there that speaks volumes of fear. I admire Self-Help for consciously deciding to not board up [they boarded up 1 day later]. If it comes to it, and there is an imminent threat, we might do that, but not before.

i think the other thing is that these fancy restaurants really have nothing to do with black people. they are not in the dining room, they're not at the bar, and they are not in the kitchen. it would make sense to build a wall much as duke created a symbolic wall around east campus because for all intents and purposes, black people largely don't exist to ______ or ________ or ________ [prominent Durham restaurateurs].

From GG:

There's your link. I can't speak to whether black people exist to those three owners. But if that's your position, then that's the missing piece. And that is an important point: that black people are invisible until it's socially rewarded to acknowledge their presence and plight. The tokenism of the acknowledgment is revealed by the plywood boards, which themselves reveal the true underlying perspectives.

My next thought:

Instead of putting up walls and and putting up boards why don’t we transform these spaces into 24-hr coffeeshops and and encourage socially distanced ppl to congregate outside on sidewalks and streets Downtown? We show solidarity with presence, not absence. 

To HD:

_____ from _______ [a Downtown business] told me when he was boarding up he planned to get a black durham artist to paint a mural over it (ostensibly to protect it from BLM graffiti). that stinks to me of tokenism from a guy who is building condos for rich white folks.

all of durham was literally vacant yesterday, from wholefoods to durham east campus to downtown. and the reason? fear of violence / violent black folks. you should take a walk downtown. it's crazy.

and i appreciate you trying to untangle the knots with me.  it's a complicated thing.  on one hand, owners should be able to protect their businesses. on the other, there is the assessment of risk and all the underlying racism that is built into that. we'll see how things develop. it appears that a brick was thrown through a window at DPD last night but otherwise things were peaceful. it's just real complicated for me right now being open with literally every other storefront boarded at 5-points. a weird loneliness. i don't want to save anyone. i want to understand my feelings and other's feelings.

A place like _______ putting up names on their plywood just stinks of allyship and "don't vandalize me, i'm woke!"  i don't forget hattie mae, and neither should the rest of durham: https://indyweek.com/food-and-drink/news/gray-brooks-defends-hattie-mae-williams-called-captain-willing-consider-name-change/

i definitely don't want to make ppl feel bad for staying home. but i do want to explore their fear. what does it say about them, and us as a society?

This was the final version that went out to the listserv and on FB:

No Walls, No Fences, No Boards

First and foremost, we are aligned with social movements whose goal is to reform the criminal justice system and end systemic racism and police brutality.  

Second, we are luckier than almost all Downtown businesses as we’ve been able to keep bakery operations rolling along, while many have shuttered or severely limited their hours. Someone is working at the Bakery nearly 99% of the time. It's sad to see Downtown boarded up but I understand business owners’ decisions. We have not boarded up and have no plans to. I hope that this passes soon, that reforms are made, and that complicit silence and rah-rah capitalist development takes a back seat to real dialogue and systemic change. Let's all hope together for a day without walls, without fences, and without boards.

Thought bubble: If we had 24-hr businesses Downtown, would people be drawn to peacefully congregate on sidewalks, in the streets, and in greenspaces? There’s nothing to do and everyone’s sleeping poorly anyway?

What's in a Hashtag? Long Read on Performative Allyship: https://forge.medium.com/performative-allyship-is-deadly-c900645d9f1f

Subsequently, the community and the businesses have flipped the narrative entirely and now the downtown space is a canvas for black art and expression, which is great, and which I support. It remains to be seen how long the boards will stay up and whether people will be more attracted to coming Downtown, or less so as we've seen last week.

https://twitter.com/rossgrady/status/1269340761725833217?s=20

https://www.wral.com/artists-create-murals-messages-on-boarded-up-windows-on-durham-buildings/19132040/

https://twitter.com/WRALSarah/status/1269354761901559815?s=20

But there has also been critique and pushback:

https://www.instagram.com/p/CBJw6konO2b/